If you picture a high-flying executive, you might also picture a kind of business superhero: an individual who is strong, resilient and seemingly invincible to any mental health challenge. But in most cases, that’s simply not the reality.
“The burnout rate of those executives is astronomical,” explains Duane Nagel, a professor at Wichita State University’s Barton School of Business.
“And when you think about the struggles of business, mental health is at the top of the list. It’s not only executives struggling with their own mental health; they also struggle getting the most out of their teams.”
Adding mental health into company culture
It’s a situation which convinced Nagel and his colleagues at Wichita to introduce a mental wellness module within the school’s executive MBA program.
The result was Mental Wellness as a Business Strategy: a course that trains executives to embed mental health initiatives into company culture while also working on their personal well-being.
“The class went through their own mental health journey, where they were doing activities to learn how to manage their emotions and how to be a visible, vocal, and vulnerable leader,” says Jessica Provines, assistant vice president for wellness at Wichita.
Provines worked alongside Nagel to develop the course, which was one of the first of its kind in the U.S. She says that students also learn how to identify different strategies that workplaces are using to manage employee mental health.
“They then had to design a proposal that they could take to their current employer to implement a mental wellness strategy,” she explains.
“And that’s one of the things we really stressed. It’s not just a singular program – it needs to have a comprehensive approach.”
It’s not the typical module you would expect to find in an MBA, particularly in an executive program, where that iron-willed executive culture could have prevented students from really opening up and engaging with the content.
But Nagel says that it’s now one of the top-rated courses in their curriculum, and one which has had a long-lasting impact on students.
“We’ve had two or three students come back to us and talk about how when they’re struggling with things, they still reach out to peers in their class that they had formed bonds with,” he states.
Nagel adds that the skills you learn in an MBA will be negated if you don’t get those foundational mental health skills right.
“Every executive needs to be able to manage balance sheets, do the marketing, personnel, logistics…those are all fundamental parts of business. But if the culture of the company is not healthy, or if you’re not healthy, those other things don’t matter and your business will struggle.”
The success of the course has meant that Nagel and Provines are looking at incorporating it into their regular MBA, as well.
A way to improve communication
That’s something which has already happened at William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business. They recently introduced two modules into their MBA curriculum centered around intrapersonal and interpersonal communication.
As part of those modules, MBA students complete everyday mindfulness practices, learn techniques to overcome speech and performance anxiety, and understand how to start treating chronic fatigue and poor sleep.
They also take part in what professor Phil Wagner describes as a “storytelling deep-dive” at the start of the program.
“As part of that, we really ask them to sit back with some of their experiences in their past life that may not otherwise seem associated with their leadership journey,” explains Wagner, who teaches a range of courses related to management communication and organizational behaviour.
“We then ask them to think about how those experiences inform their perspective.”
This activity is part of the school’s drive to encourage MBA students to “slow down and sit with their thoughts.” Again, it’s not exactly a typical focus area of an MBA, but it’s something that students are increasingly benefiting from.
Wagner describes mental wellness training as “one of the most-coached skill-gap deficiencies among leaders.”
He adds that by giving MBA students this grounding in mental wellness now, it will benefit them throughout their career and probably save them a lot of money on therapy later down the line.
Like the mental wellness course at Barton, Wagner’s modules are some of the most popular among MBA students at William & Mary.
It’s reflective of a changing culture within MBA programs. The old school image of the invincible business leader is out, and Provines’ alternative image of a vulnerable and visible leader is in. She believes that this kind of investment into your mental health can only benefit you and your future colleagues.
“If you ensure your people are thriving then your outcomes will also improve. When you invest in people’s well-being, it’s a win-win,” she states.
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